Help teach me please

[Mr.Mac]

I'm new to solar, I'm trying to learn how to take my radiant floor heat solar/battery power, I've got a small circulation pump (120v) , and a tankless 19W electric heater, where do I start? How many solar panels? How many batteries? I'm so confused. Thanks in advance

 

[glandpuck]

My advice to you is to hire a professional to do the installation. Here's why: The number one most important thing to consider when installing any renewable system is the desired goal that the system is to meet. This is where DIYers get it wrong. PLANNING, PLANNING, PLANNING IS JOB ONE. You have to very carefully calculate your energy needs for the worst case scenarios. Those being the worst heat waves for air conditioning and those being the worst cold winter weather events for those needing heat and water pumps. If the DIYer can get past this, then they usually lack the knowledge of how renewable equipment will perform under those planned for extreme conditions. Then they get disappointed that the system results fall far from expectations. Lastly there are different electrical codes and equipment authorizations in different states. Depending on your choices of installation, value could be added to your property or subtracted. fire risk could be increased. electrical code may not be met.

Finally a 19 watts tankless heater would on a 120 volt outlet would consume only 0.158 amps of electricity per hour of run time. Your small pump probably around the same. So say you use 0.5 amps per hour to run the system. So 50 watts of power would be a good estimate. 50 watts x 24 hours = 1200 watts in a day or 1.2 kW. So now, armed with this information, you would need a system that could produce say 2500 to 3000 watts of power in a day to reliably charge the batteries and run the system on cloudy days. Now have at it. Choose an inverter, batteries and panels and get 'er done!

 

[KITROBASKIN]

Can we get more information?
Is this a project mostly for experimentation?
Can you show us images of your equipment?
If you are so confused, maybe research more then ask questions, or hire someone.

 

[MisterSandals]

I'm trying to learn how to take my radiant floor heat solar/battery power, I've got a small circulation pump (120v) , and a tankless 19W electric heater, where do I start?

So you have an existing radiant floor heat system that you want to power with solar?

Do you know how many watt hours per day both your circulation pump and heater use every day?

If the 19W heater ran 24 hours a day, it would use:
19W x 24h = 456Wh

How much power does the pump use and what % of the time does it run (or how long do you want it to run, worst case, from solar)?

With your energy use, its possible to size a system. You're near KC?

 

[chrisski]

, and a tankless 19W electric heater, where do I start?

Are you sure this is 19 watts?

My 18” x 24” plant warmer is 20 watts.

The actual wattage makes a huge difference.

 

[Grampa]

I'm thinking you meant to say 19 KW tankless heater?

 

[MisterSandals]

I'm thinking you meant to say 19 KW tankless heater?

Well that "k" changes the estimate by 1000 times.

To me, 1.9kW (1900W) seems more likely.

 

[Mr.Mac]

I would like to say thanks for all the input, my pump is a small pump, but my heater is a 19kw (240v), I'm sorry for the misleading, it's on a timer due to cost of electricity, it runs for approximately 10 min then off for 20 min, it runs this regiment 24hrs a day, this keeps my shop approximately 50 degrees all day long, I live north of kc MO about an hour, I will try and get a picture of my set up and more info of the pump and heater this evening, thank you all for your help....

 

[Brett V]

Running that on solar and batteries will be prohibitively expensive. The most bang for the buck as far as I know for heating and cooling with solar, is a mini split.

 

[MisterSandals]

19kw (240v),

This sounds outrageously high.

But, lets mess with supplying this from batteries. Has to be 48V battery...

19000W / 48V battery / .85 inverter efficiency = 465A (needs over 500A fuse and wiring)

 

[chrisski]

Have you considered evacuated tubes?

Evacuated Tube Collector for Solar Hot Water System

Alternative Energy Tutorial about using an Evacuated Tube Collector to increase the temperature and produce solar hot water and home solar heating

www.alternative-energy-tutorials.com

Seems to me this could be a better use of solar for water heating.